Category Archives: Research
Is schizophrenia disappearing?
Psychosis is a mental state with grossly impaired reality testing, manifesting as different mixtures of delusions, hallucinations, deviant thinking and abnormal motor behaviour – so-called positive symptoms. Negative symptoms – reduced emotions, interests, will and social participation
Marine metagenomic large insert libraries as rich source for biofilm inhibiting molecules
Marine microbial consortia are highly diverse and have evolved during extended evolutionary processes of physiological adaptations affected by a variety of ecological conditions and selection pressures. They harbor an enormous diversity of metabolically complex microbes with still
Blood vessels regulate fetal brain growth
Millions of neurons are generated during fetal development from progenitor cells that reside inside the embryonic brain. These neural progenitor cell (NPC)s divide many times to generate new neurons in a process termed ‘neurogenesis’. At each cell
How birds breathe: Did evolution finally get it right?
Flight and the efficiency of the respiratory system Powered (active) flight is a defining lifestyle trait of birds. Showing the exacting evolutionary requirements for flight, powered flight has only ever developed in insects, the extinct pterodactyls, birds
Old drugs learn new tricks: drug repurposing saves the world!
New way of drug discovery, “drug repurposing” has come into the spotlight. Drug repurposing—also known as drug reprofiling or drug repositioning—is essentially using “old” drugs to treat “new” diseases. With increases in knowledge about the molecular mechanisms
Cells must communicate to maintain normal uterine and placental functions
Cell-cell communication through specialized channels known as gap junctions (Fig. 1) regulate cellular metabolism and coordinate cellular functions during growth and differentiation of organs and tissues. Gap junctions are composed of six proteins known as connexins (Cx)
Rain, rain go away, little amoebas want to race
Soil living amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum has been used as a leading model organism for studying eukaryotic cell differentiation and directional cell migration. These functions are interconnected: starved Dictyostelium cells form multicellular aggregates by directional cell migration, and
Calmodulin is necessary for vegetative growth, ultraviolet survival, and sexual development in the model filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa
Calcium (Ca2+) is an important player of intracellular signaling system in living organisms including fungi. In the model filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa, calmodulin (CaM) is a high affinity Ca2+-binding protein involved in the Ca2+ signaling process to
Can a 6-monthly administered biologic prevent age-related blindness?
As increasing numbers of people survive in relatively good health to older ages, the importance of diseases impacting their quality of life rise in significance. One such disease is age-related macular degeneration, (AMD), which in the ‘wet
Chemokines, an answer to the gut inflammation?
Our gut is a complex organ which not only digests the food but also acts as an immune organ. The gut is lined by a single layer of specialized cells called as intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) which
FINDbase worldwide database for clinically relevant genomic variation allele frequencies
National and Ethnic Genomic Databases comprise a well-defined niche of genomic databases, aiming to record the prevalence of alleles, mainly pathogenic and of clinical relevance, but also benign, in different populations and ethnic groups worldwide in a
Electrically controlled insulin release
Stimuli responsive materials are promising for designing the next generation of drug delivery systems. Such materials would enable drugs to be released on-demand or in response to patient needs, specifically at the target site, minimizing side effects.
Aggregation Induced Emission tells us molecular aggregation processes
The aggregation-induced emission (AIE) is the phenomena that the fluorescence intensity is low in solution, the aggregated state shows strong emission. Conversion of the fluorescent properties depending on the aggregated states can also provide information on the
Noni leaf, black tea and Black cohosh encouraged bone growth in post-menopausal mammals
High intake of black tea and certain types of flavonoids were associated with lower risk of fracture-related hospitalizations in elderly women at high risk of fracture. Black tea consumption increased serum estradiol and prevented bone loss in
Emerging roles of cyclic nucleotide gated channels in plants
Plants are vulnerable to various biotic and abiotic stresses imposed in their respective growth environment. These stresses negatively affect the normal growth, development and productivity. Unlike animals, which can move to conditions conducive for growth and development;
Zooming in on the ‘big eaters’ in atherosclerosis: a key role for oxidation and cellular localization of fat
Our sedentary lifestyle combined with the enrichment of fat in our diet has led to an increase of diseases affecting the health of our cardiovascular system. Cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causes of death, with
Towards next-generation optimized personalized inhalers
Asthma is a chronic disease involving the airways in the lungs characterized by recurring attacks of panting and wheezing. Asthma affects about 300 million people and is a leading cause of hospitalization and ER costs for children
Erufosine increases RhoB expression in oral squamous carcinoma cells independent of its anticancer mechanism of action
Erufosine is an ether–lipid-derived synthetic compound belonging to the group of alkylphosphocholines (APCs). This chemotherapeutic agent exhibits pronounced anti-leukemic activity without affecting the normal hematopoiesis and exerts its influence by modulating signal transduction pathways in malignant tumor
